thoughts on food, culture, and community

Friday Photo: Morning farm chores

Morning feeding, October 2010

Our dairy farm in Shippensburg is operated from roughly 2:30 AM to 6 PM, depending on the day and the season. When I worked on the farm, my chores included “chasing in” the cows on Thursdays (translation: I herded the cows into be milked, and my siblings and cousins were responsible for the same job on the other days of the week), milking, cleaning, unloading hay and straw, feeding calves, scraping the barnyard, and helping to pick and sell sweet corn. This list of chores is small compared the work that running a farm actually requires.

Continuing my thoughts on my dad for Father’s Day, this photo depicts my father filling a wagon with silage, preparing to feed the cows their morning meal. I love this picture for the shadow and morning sunshine and the waterfall of silage that curtains my dad’s view.